{"id":70519,"date":"2020-02-21T15:59:53","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T13:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=70519"},"modified":"2023-10-16T12:50:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T09:50:23","slug":"those-who-surrender-shall-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/those-who-surrender-shall-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Those Who Surrender Shall Live"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[840,506,434],"acf":{"old_id":"70519","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38552,"related_cahpter":"421","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"When defeatism is realism\r\n\r\n","content":"

Through asking Jeremiah, King Zedekiah hopes to reproduce the miracle that saved Jerusalem from the wrath of Sennacherib.\u00a0 Jeremiah ignores the request to pray, instead sending the king and the people a prophetic portent of doom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first part is addressed to the king and his courtiers, and the second part to the people. The king and his proxies do not know why Jeremiah has refused their request; they have no idea that God is staying the prophet’s hand. To them, Jeremiah simply does not love his people as much as Isaiah, who acquiesced to Hezekiah’s plea and enlisted in the effort to stop Assyria. Jeremiah, in contrast, intensifies his doom-saying. He watches the military buildup in Jerusalem, the bravery of the soldiers, their devotion to the cause \u2014 and it all seems futile. God is about to turn their own weapons of war against them as the battle reaches the city’s streets. Jeremiah knows there will be a catastrophe. And after the initial massacre when the Babylonians breach the city, the leaders \u2014 the king and his entourage, and the rest of the survivors \u2014 will be delivered into the hands of the King of Babylonia, who will slaughter them mercilessly. The second part of the prophecy addresses the people as they quake in terror before the Babylonians. Jeremiah instructs them unambiguously: Surrender. Give yourselves up to the Babylonians. He does not beat around the bush: “Whoever leaves and surrenders to the besieging Chaldeans shall live.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremiah generates an atmosphere of defeat among the people. His words hit home and many indeed throw themselves to the mercy of the Babylonian king:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The remainder of the people in the city \u2014 those who surrendered to the King of Babylonia and the remnant of the population \u2014 were exiled by the commander Nebuzaradan. (II Kings 25:11)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the list of exiles at the end of the Book of Jeremiah, we find that a group of people indeed went into exile \u2014 apparently willingly \u2014 before the destruction. This list includes those who were not connected to the main exile: “In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, from Jerusalem, 832 people” (Jer. 52:29). That year (587 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year in power), the destruction had not yet taken place; this is an earlier exile. According to II Kings 25:8, the destruction occurred in Nebuchadnezzar’s nineteenth year. Moreover, the number of exiles listed (832) makes no sense in the context of Jerusalem’s destruction. Apparently, this figure refers to deserters who opposed Zedekiah’s bellicosity and surrendered to the Babylonians for ideological reasons. This theory is supported by Zedekiah’s own words. As the Babylonians tighten their siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah suggests that the king give himself up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lau, Binyamin. <\/span>Jeremiah: The Fate of a Prophet<\/span><\/i>. Maggid Books, 2013. \u201cJeremiah’s Reply to King Zedekiah’s Delegates\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69252,"id":69252,"title":"jer-lau2","filename":"jer-lau2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/running-a-gauntlet-of-pain\/jer-lau2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer-lau2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69251,"date":"2020-01-27 21:59:05","modified":"2020-01-27 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